Faith Enough to Move Mountains... of Snow

Spring is right around the corner! 

The snow is melting, the sun is shining, and the Snow has been "cleaned"! In Russian you say that you are going to go clean the snow. Okay. So maybe Spring isn't as close as I'd hope, but the days are getting longer and longer every day. The sun sets at 6.30 now rather than 3.30. The branch building has a nice wide path in the front and every time it snows a lot, we go and help Nikolai shovel it all. We shoveled it twice this week, and then saturday night as we walked by the branch, he roped us into moving a huge pile of snow that was up against the building so that when things started melting and freezing the building wouldn't get ruined. I'm not going to lie, I expected to see a lot more snowblowers in Siberia. 

So Christy just got accepted into BYU and will be leaving home in June. Dad'll have an empty house! crazy. May think, oh it's horrible! Your nearest children with their 9 children live a whole 5 hour drive away. This week we visited an elderly lady in the ward. she's Apartment-ridden. Literally never leaves her little apartment. Missionaries visit her once a week or so and pick up her groceries for the week. About 8 dollars worth. She's so happy and grateful every time the missionaries come over. She has family though. Visits with them over skype. They live in Germany. Some of us back home may think that our lives are hard, or things aren't working out. Maybe we don't have a custom house, or a new car, or this or that. Take a look at what you do have! Count your blessings and just realize that the life you've lived though not perfect is full of plenty. I never understood why it was called the "American Dream" until coming here to a 2nd world country. The most basic package of the American Dream, accessable to anyone who will try in America, is for some over here like going to the moon! 

This week we went to Novosibirsk for a Zone Conference. The 5 hour bus ride allowed me to catch up on my Book of Mormon reading in oder to read the whole Book of Mormon in the month of February. I did it! Finished it off Saturday morning. My focus for this read was Prayer, and our communication to God. Prayer is real, and a principle of our faith. Knock and it shall be opened unto you! I'm already underway for my March reading. Topic of Revelation. God's communication to us. The main focus thus far has been this: From the examples of Nephi and Lehi we learn that when we are worthy, and following the commandments, the "voice of the Lord" can come to us. This may be better defined as the Holy Ghost. These are promptings, and are a form of Revelation. There are instances though where these promptings come in order to prompt us to do something in order to receive the full message. For example. Nephi hears the 'Voice of the Lord", and is told to get himself up into a Mountain. So he goes. Mountains in the scriptures are the most holy places when there is no Temple available. So he goes into the mountain where he then commences to "Speak with the Lord".. or Talk. i can't remember the wording. Point being. We may receive Promptings from the spirit. "go to the temple"... "Go pray". In short, get into a holy place where the spirit can work more powerfully writing you. When Nephi got into the mountain, the following verses are recorded as a conversation with him and the Lord. When we go to the temple, or the closest thing that we have, our connection with God will be stronger and clearer. 

Happy Birthday and Congrats to Christy for getting into BYU! We're going to have some fun out there! :) 

I hope you all have a great week, 

Love,
Elder Moore

 Bus ride to Novo.. Not quite Spring

 Store where we shopped for our member

 Path through the park

Snow Removal in Siberia. :)

Here's a video as well

Have a good one!!